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UTV Jargon Explained

By Kavan Wright | Behind The Wheel on April 8, 2020
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That guy sent his bike and now he’s got a yard sale! Turns out his buggie was more trailer queen than hill killer.

What?

If you don’t know what we’re talking about, then you’ve come to the right place. This is SuperATV’s definitive list of offroad jargon, slang, and colloquial weirdness designed to inform the uninformed.

Feel free to share your own slang terms that you and your buddy use. There’s a lot of it out there and we want this list to grow!

Bench racer—That person who doesn’t have their own ride but knows they’re a better driver than you

Bike—Usually a word to describe a two-wheeled vehicle, but somehow also refers to UTVs and ATVs sometimes

Braaaaap—Getting on the gas and the sound your engine makes when you get going

Camp hero—That guy who rides through as loudly as possible and generally drives too fast and annoys everybody when they’re just trying to relax

G-out—When you drive into a ditch or dip at high speed so that your suspension bottoms out

Granny trail—The easy bypass route around tough hazards and obstacles, mainly used by Polaris riders. Just kidding! Honda riders use it too…

Goose—When you floor it suddenly

Ghost walking—When an atv rider gets off their ride and walks beside it through a mud hole

ATV stuck in mud
This guy’s ghost walking his ATV through this nasty peanut butter mud. This keeps it from tipping over and helps him find traction. This guy’s also a bit of a trail plug.
Photo by SuperATV

Hill killer—Someone who likes to climb hills

Hold my beer—What you say before you #sendit, usually as a response to an indirect challenge

Guy: “The river’s at flood stage and over 30 feet deep in the center. Ain’t nobody dumb enough to try and cross it now.” You: “Hold my beer.”

Honey hole—An exceptionally high quality mud hole and, usually, the most popular mud hole in the park

Hooning—Driving in a dangerous or reckless manner in order to provoke a reaction from onlookers

Hoonigan—A person who hoons

Hydro’d or Hydro Locked—When you suck water into your air intake and it fills your engine and cylinders—it’s real bad

#JustSendIt—Hitting the gas and going for it without regard for you or your machine’s well being, originated by Larry Enticer and his unwavering optimism in the seat of his snowmobile

Mud boggin—Taking your UTV into mud that’s too deep for anything else to handle, usually involves deep, rutted-out holes that fill with mud every time it rains

OREO—Off Road Enforcement Officer, AKA police

Peanut butter—Mud, but it’s really thick like peanut butter

Po-po—Police or a Polaris UTV—knowing which ones your buddies are talking about in the moment is very important

UTV riding in sand dunes
“Watch out for that po-po!” Is your buddy talking about a Polairs side-by-side, or the dune cops? In this case, it’s both.
Photo by UTV Action Mag

Rooster tail—The big plume of dirt, mud, sand, snow, or rocks that you send up with your rear tires—it resembles a rooster’s tail when viewed from the side

Rock bouncing—Just like it sounds: driving through rocks and bouncing off of them

Rock crawler—A UTV built just for going through rocks. Usually has a wide suspension, a small lift, big tires, and a reinforced cage

Rock garden—An area with rocks and boulders that are begging to be driven over in a side-by-side

UTV climbing rocks
A good rock garden demands a great side-by-side. This RZR was upgraded to handle everything Moab had to throw at it, and it’s dominating these rock shelves!
Photo by SuperATV

Rig—A UTV or ATV

Side-by-side—Rig, buggie, bike, UTV, machine, car

Skeg—Mud, but you’re in Canada

Squid—Someone that breaks parts constantly because they’re bad at driving

Trailer queen—A very expensive ride, usually has a big lift, big tires, custom wrap, custom cage, aftermarket doors and bumpers, a whole bunch of lights, and an expensive sound system, that’s never driven off the trailer—it’s either too expensive to risk damaging, or so big and complicated that it would fall apart on anything other than flat ground

Tire kicker—Someone who acts interested in buying the side-by-side you’re selling, but will never pull the trigger

Three wheeling—What happens when you switch your side-by-side to four-wheel drive if you use a limited slip differential like Visco-Lok

Trail DJ—The guy on the trail that bought a big honkin’ sound system so that everyone in a mile radius can listen to his Blake Shelton mix tape

Trail plug—Someone who obviously doesn’t know what they’re doing, drives too slow, and holds up everybody behind them

Turtle—You become turtle when you put your side-by-side on its roof, you stay a turtle even after it’s back on its wheels

UTV—Utility Task Vehicle or side-by-side

Whiskey Throttle—A mistake novice riders make when things get sketchy—instead of staying cool, you panic and hit the gas, amplifying the sketchiness of the situation

Witch’s eye—A soft hole that can appear in dunes and can be as small as an ATV or as big as a swimming pool—they usually appear between ridges but can be anywhere, either way they’re hard to spot and can lead to major G-outs

Yard sale—After a wreck when the contents of your vehicle are spread all over the place—these guys all had yard sales

desert sand dunes
Can you spot the witch’s eye? We can’t, and that’s the point. They sneak up on you and wreck your ride.

What Words Did We Miss?

That’s our list. Hopefully you’ve learned a little something about how to talk to your side-by-side friends. But now’s your chance to teach us a little something. Post your words below and we’ll add them to the list. That way we’ll all be speaking the same language.

RELATED CONTENT: lifestyle15 new riders25
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1 Comment

  1. Avatar for Mark Hudson Mark Hudson says:
    June 16, 2020 at 5:20 pm

    Screened in Porch- A UTV That has a full soft or hard enclosure

    Reply

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